A Corruption Free India.

From the time of Independence and even earlier we Indians have faced problems due to the corruption in our land. One of the major reasons for this has been that most of our deals were done using cash. There has never been a restriction on the amount of cash held or amount of cash used to pay for any product or service. Cash has fueled the black money in our economy, the mafia, the smugglers, dowry and most other black features in our country.

There are other means of indulging in corruption. The barter being one of the simplest modes of continuing corruption. An official could say "OK get me the most expensive iPad", or "Sponsor my trip to this foreign country". The official could ask the victim to open a bank account and give him the Debit Card and so on. But the main form of corruption is still taking cash as it is very difficult to audit cash. Every other asset, foreign junkets, accumulating large amount of expensive assets can be tracked and traced much more easily.

The government has taken a bold decision and has demonetized the main currency notes in which the black money was accumulated so far. This has either forced these people to bring back the money into the economy or has forced them to give up the money. Nobody knows for sure which constitutes the larger proportion.

In any case the cash available in the economy has dropped. There is a curb on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn by individuals (There still are loop holes like a person having a number of accounts can still withdraw much more than an individual with only one or two accounts). There has been lots of hue and cry for removing these limits.

Just pause and think as to what will happen if these limits are removed. We will again end up paying the builders in unaccounted cash, the builders will pay off the government officials, the industrialists will continue paying the ones in power in cash and every other transaction that which was greased by cash will continue to thrive and we will be back to square one.

Pause and think, do you really want to get to a situation where you are forced to pay the builder 40% of the cost of your flat in cash? Do you want to sell your flat and take a suitcase full of cash and pass it on to somebody else without telling the authorities about your real income? Or would you want to stop this practice and help the government, hopefully, reduce the taxes and the interest rates?

If you think like me you will want the limit on cash withdrawals to continue and possibly be made more stringent as we go forward.

At the same time we should urge the government to make e-payments more attractive to all stakeholders. This is something that the government has done only a little to encourage. This will bring in the transparency into our economy and while it will not root out corruption, it will be a big blow to it. More such strikes should lead India to become a much better place to live in, in terms of economic atmosphere.

Please this petition if you agree with the views expressed above.

PS: The builders have been mentioned as these are the most prominent ones who openly promote corruption. Most businessmen promote some kind of corruption, some small and some big. It is only the size of the establishment which determines the size.